Autonomous Vehicles Essay

Artificial Intelligence applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Introduction

Autonomous vehicles have been around for some years now and are becoming more sophisticated every day. As much as these advances are taking place, we are still a long way from robots performing everyday, practical tasks, whether it is in the home or on the battlefield. That said, robots are currently very advanced and able to perform a variety of tasks, whether on land, sea air or in outer space. A lot of money is currently being invested in the autonomous vehicles industry as robots are able to perform tasks which are potentially very dangerous for humans, such as exploring hazardous territory or assisting soldiers in times of war.

Autonomous robots are able to adapt to there surroundings, making changes to achieve the intended goal. This is where the main difference lies between industrial robots as they are programmed for certain tasks, but are unable to adapt to changes.

Autonomous characteristics include:

• Self Maintenance

Autonomous robots must be able to maintain themselves, this could include – maintaining a power supply or even to change between power sources for efficiency.

• The ability to learn

Autonomous robots need to have the ability to learn, this includes learning new tasks and adapting to situations forced upon them.

• To avoid danger

Avoiding danger is important for all living beings and also robots, robots need to learn to avoid situations which may cause harm, this could be as simple as detecting a drop or cliff using infra-red sensors.





Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

History

Robotic flying vehicles were first introduced in World War 1 and World War 2 and have now developed to very sophisticated pieces of equipment which have many uses.

Early unmanned aircraft were used as “cruise missiles”, which were controlled by gyroscopes. These were first introduced during the First World War and were named the “flying bombs”.

UAV’s...